Paraslash network audio streaming tools

NEWS

0.6.3 (to be announced) “generalized activity”

The ff command now accepts a negative argument to instruct the
virtual streaming system to jump backwards in the current audio
stream. The old syntax (e.g., “ff 30-”) is still supported but it
is deprecated and no longer documented. The compatibility code is
sheduled for removal after 0.7.0.

para_afh: New option: –preserve to reset the modification time to
the value of the original file after meta data modification.

Overhaul of the compress filter code. The refined algorithm should
reduce clipping. The meaning of –aggressiveness has changed, see the
updated and extended documentation of the compress filter for details.

Cleanup of the audio format handler code.

We now build the tree using the .ONESHELL feature of GNU make,
which results in a significant speedup.

Two robustness fixes for FreeBSD.

para_client now supports RFC4716 private keys as generated with
ssh-keygen -m RFC4716. In fact, this key format has been made the
default, and the former PEM keys will be depreciated at some point.

The ogg audio format handlers learned to detect holes and now report
the correct duration also if ogg pages are missing in the file. This
affects ogg/vorbis ogg/speex and ogg/opus.

Robustness improvements for para_mixer.

A fix for an old bug that could cause the server to crash or report
garbage in its status output.

New para_play option: –end-of-playlist

0.6.2 (2018-06-30) “elastic diversity”

The main new feature of this release is the –listen-address option
for para_server and para_audiod. But there are also a large number of
small improvements and bug fixes all over the place. The user-visible
changes include

para_gui no longer waits up to one second to update the screen when
the geometry of the terminal changes.

Minor documentation improvements.

Improvements to the crypto subsystem.

The server subcommand “task” has been deprecated. It still works,
but prints nothing. It will be removed in the next major release.

0.6.1 (2017-09-23) “segmented iteration”

The highlight of this release is the version 2 mood parser. But there
is a lot more than that, as summarized in the list below. And of
course we have many small usability improvements and bug fixes not
mentioned here.

A more intuitive syntax for moods (“version 2 moods”). The
traditional version 1 moods are still supported but are deprecated
now. Removal of the version 1 mood parser is scheduled for the next
major release.

Flex and bison are now required to build para_server.

New sort order for the ls command: -s=h sorts the ls output by hash
value of the audio file.

autogen.sh now runs the test suite after a successful build.

The contents of overview.pdf have been integrated into the user
manual.

Fixed sized audio format headers for ogg/opus streams.

The doxygen source browser has been disabled temporarily. The
API reference is still online, though.

Overhaul of the source code documentation.

The deprecated –full-path option of the ls command has been
removed. It was a no-op since 0.6.0.

The wma decoder has been cleaned up and its bitstream API made
more robust.

The image/lyrics ID status items of the current audio file are now
updated on changes. This affects para_gui, which used to report the
old value until EOF.

0.5.8 (2017-09-23) “branching parabola”

A couple of fixes for serious old bugs have accummulated in the maint
branch since paraslash-0.5.7 was released nine months ago. So here
is another 0.5.x release. As usual, all commits in the maint branch
have been merged into master, so the upcoming paraslash-0.6.1 also
contains them. For details see the git log.

0.6.0 (2017-04-28) “fuzzy flux”

The highlights of this release are the conversion of all option parsers
to the lopsub library and the improved AAC support. But there are
many other user-visible changes all over the place. Also a lot of
old cruft has been removed, leading to incompatible changes. Hence
the new major version number.

Support for Mac OS X has been removed.

On Linux systems, glibc-2.17 or newer is required to build the
source tree.

Support for RSA public keys in ASN format (as generated by openssl
genrsa) has been removed. These keys have been deprecated since
2011, so users should have long switched to keys generated with
ssh-keygen(1).

If libgcrypt is used as the crypto library, we now require version
1.5.0 (released in 2011) or later.

The insecure RC4 stream cipher has been removed. It was superseded
by aes_ctr128 three years ago but the RC4 code had been kept for
backwards compatibility.

On Linux, abstract unix domain sockets are used unconditionally.

The “install” target no longer strips executables, the new
install-strip target can be used to get the old behaviour.

The clean targets have been renamed: clean2 is gone, and the new
mostlyclean removes only the executables and object files.

New target: check (identical to test).

The DESTDIR make variable is honored to prepend a path to the
installation directory. This feature is orthogonal to the –prefix
option to configure.

Minor WMA cleanups.

The aac audio format handler has been rewritten to use the mp4ff library.
See the manual for how to install the library on your system.

New status item: max_chunk_size. The value is stored in a previously
unused field of the afhi object of the aft table. Although backwards
compatible, users are encouraged to re-add m4a files to populate
the new field.

No more chunk tables for aac. Chunk boundaries are determined
dynamically at stream time.

Release and master branch tarballs are now compressed with xz rather
than bzip2.

The lopsub package is required to install the paraslash package.
Gengetopt is no longer needed.

make dep is gone. Dependencies have been created automatically for
a long time and it was never necessary to run make dep manually.

para_gui lost its –timeout option.

Most manual pages have been extended to include an overall
description of the command.

The –stream-delay option of para_audiod has been removed. It had
been a no-op for many years.

The deprecated –path option of the server ls command has been
removed. The command now prints full paths by default, making
–full-path a no-op. Hence –full-path has been depreacted and is
scheduled for removal in v0.6.1.

It is now possible to use ‘CFLAGS’ to override the default compiler
options.

para_fade has been renamed to para_mixer. The four modes of operation
(set, fade, snooze, sleep) are implemented as subcommands of the
new program.

The sleep subcommand of para_mixer (former sleep mode of para_fade)
lost its –wake-hour and –wake-min options in favor of the new
–wake-time option which also accepts relative wakeup times like
“+9:30”.

The new –fade-exponent option of para_mixer allows for non-linear
channel fading.

0.4.14 (2016-12-31) “branching oscillation”

Many fixes for nasty bugs have accumulated over the years since 0.4.13
was released in 2013. This release contains all of them. It is the
last v0.4.x release, so v0.4.x is now end of life. The maint branch
of the git repository has been forwarded to v0.5.7 and will start to
receive important fixes for 0.5.x, which is now in maintenance mode.

Fix for the “double encryption bug” with gcrypt, which caused
garbage to be sent to stat clients.

The “prev” command of para_play now works as expected.

Invalid parameters for the begin and end chunk no longer cause
the afh receiver of para_recv to segfault.

A fix for an assertion that triggered in the FEC slice setup code.

Closing the terminal with a running para_gui causes the process to
die, rather than using 100% of CPU time.

0.5.6 (2016-07-10) “cascading gradient”

The highlight of this release is the new -m flag for para_afh which
lets it modify the meta tags of the given audio file(s). This feature
is supported for all audio formats. Many small cleanups and bug fixes
not mentioned here have accumulated and are also part of the release.

0.5.2 (2014-04-11) “orthogonal interior”

The new sync filter, the AES_CTR128 stream cipher and the overhauled
network code are the highlights of this release. It also includes a
fair number of smaller fixes and improvements not mentioned here.

The new sync filter synchronizes playback between multiple
clients.

Connections between para_server and para_client are now
encrypted by means of AES rather than RC4 if both sides
support it. RC4 is still available as a fallback. This
feature is fully transparent, i.e. no command line options
are necessary, and a client linked against openssl can
speak with a server linked against libgcrypt and vice versa.

Major cleanup of the networking subsystem.

Improvements to para_fade: the new set mode, multi-channel
initial volumes, better error logging.

The man pages of para_audiod, para_filter, para_recv, and
para_write contain the relevant options for receivers, filters,
writers. This broke in 0.5.0.

0.4.13 (2013-07-29) “spectral gravity”

One more 0.4.x release before the API-breaking changes for 0.5.0 go
in. The main features of this release are the ogg/opus audio format,
and UTF-8 support, but it includes also tons of other improvements
and fixes all over the place.

New audio format: ogg/opus.

UTF8 support for para_gui and the mp3 audio format handler.

Scheduler improvements and fixes.

The obsolete gettimeofday() function has been replaced
by clock_gettime() on systems which support it.

Speed and usability improvements for para_gui.

para_client now restores the fd flags of stdin and stdout
on shutdown.

Improved manual pages.

Consistent version strings for all executables.

Reduced dependencies on generated files result in fewer
recompilations on changes.

Performance improvements for the compress filter.

Improved downloads web page.

0.4.12 (2012-12-20) “volatile relativity”

The new command line player, the resample filter, ALSA support for
para_fade, and the improved build system are the highlights of this
release which probably marks the end of the 0.4.x series.

The afh receiver and the para_play executable.

The resample filter: A sample rate converter based on
libsamplerate.

The “versions” directory has been removed from the master
branch. The tarballs of the old releases are now available
in the new “releases” branch.

Overhaul of the build system: All generated files are now
written to the “build” directory.

The modular mixer API and the alsa mixer.

Minor fixes for the osx writer.

0.4.11 (2012-07-20) “mutual diversity”

The major feature in this release is the new sideband API for
client-server communication. This API will be used exclusively starting
with 0.5.0, which breaks backward compatibility but allows to get rid
of quite some compatibility code. Other noteworthy changes include
decoder latency improvements and a long-standing bug fix for the
ALSA writer.

Sideband connections: If both para_server and para_client
support this feature, data is sent as a multiplexed stream.

The –no_default_filters option of para_filter has been
removed.

Several fixes and latency improvements to various decoders.

The ALSA writer now limits the prebuffer time to 500ms.

Documentation improvements.

Overhaul of the command_util.sh script.

Fixes for some minor problems found by the clang analyzer.

Compiles (almost) without warnings on gcc-3.

Robustness improvements of the buffer tree code.

0.4.10 (2012-03-30) “heterogeneous vacuum”

Nothing earth-shaking in this release, but quite a few usability
improvements and the usual mix of cleanups and fixes.

The –no_default_filters option of para_filter has been
deprecated. It still works but has no effect and will be
removed in the next version.

para_gui now prints also the stderr output of the executing
command in the bottom window.

Cleanup and consolidation of the various wrappers for
write(), writev(), send() and friends.

The obscure error messages on mmap() failures have been
replaced by meaningful messages. This affects mainly
para_afh.

para_audioc: Cleanups and memory leak fixes.

Test 0004-server no longer fails if para_server is not
being built.

New configure options: –with-id3tag-{headers,libs}.

0.4.9 (2011-12-06) “hybrid causality”

Support for another audio format, interactive mode for para_client
and para_audiod and many small improvements/fixes all over the place.

Support for flac, the free lossless audio codec.

Fix for an endless loop in the mp3 decoder for certain
(corrupt) mp3 files.

When executed without specifying a command, para_client
and para_audioc start an interactive shell (requires
libreadline being installed). The interactive mode offers
full tab completion and command line history.

autogen.sh now detects a distcc setup and adjusts the
parameter for the -j option of make accordingly.

Shared memory areas are no longer restricted to 64K. We now
detect the maximal size of a shared memory area at runtime.

A new test for the test-suite that exercises the
communication between para_server and para_audiod.

The alsa writer eats up less CPU cycles when configured to
use the DMIX plugin.

Simplified and unified receiver code.

Makefile cleanups.

Commands which print a list of matching audio files now
emit a meaningful error message if no audio file matched the
given pattern(s).

0.4.8 (2011-08-19) “nested assignment”

Gcrypt support, the overhauled osx writer and regex format specifiers
are the highlights of this release.

support for libgcrypt as a drop-in replacement for openssl.
Run configure –enable-cryptolib=gcrypt to link against
libgcrypt. The two crypto implementations are compatible to
each other, i.e. a para_client executable linked against
gcrypt can connect to para_server linked against libssl
and vice versa.

Rewrite of the osx writer (output plugin for Mac OS).

audiod: The format specifier for receivers, filters and
writers is now treated as a regular expression. This allows
to replace 5 lines in the config file (one for each audio
format) by one single line. See the manual for details.

The *.cmdline.[ch] files are no longer contained in the released
tarballs. This reduces the size of the tarballs but requires
gengetopt to build the tarball.

Compiles cleanly also with llvm/clang.

Corrupt mp3 files are handled more gracefully.

The alsa writer uses poll fds instead of computing timeouts.

Cleanup of the generic writer API.

sched: Optimized zero timeouts.

vss timeout cleanups.

oggdec fixes and improvements.

0.4.7 (2011-06-01) “infinite rollback”

The new ao writer, support for ssh RSA keys and a couple of other
enhancements.

Support for ESD, Pulseaudio, AIX, Solaris, IRIX and other
platforms through the libao audio library.

Support for RSA keys generated with ssh-keygen.

configure: improved options for ogg/vorbis/speex.

The git version reported by –version always matches HEAD.

The autogen script detects the number of processors and
runs a parallel make if possible.

Major cleanup of the crypto API.

Documentation updates.

0.4.6 (2011-03-31) “deterministic entropy”

Lots of ogg/vorbis improvements, the new test suite, enhancements
for para_gui and a fair amount of other bug fixes.

For DCCP/OGG streams the audio file header is only sent once
at the beginning of the stream rather than periodically
every five seconds. This reduces network traffic and the
FEC group size.

The vorbis comment header is replaced by an empty dummy header
before the header is sent over the network. This also results in
less network traffic and smaller FEC groups.

The new “test” make target allows to perform some sanity checks prior
to installing the package.

ogg timing fixes and performance improvements

Scheduler improvements

Proper exit codes for para_write

para_gui: New option –theme to select a startup theme. Several
other improvements and fixes.

aacdec error message cleanups

simplified color error handling

0.4.5 (2010-12-17) “symmetric randomization”

Bug fixes, internal cleanups and variable-sized FEC slices.

Contains a fix for an invalid-free-bug in the ogg audio format
handler code.

Switching off the DCCP sender works again.

para_audiod handles crashes of para_server more robustly.

Internal scheduler and writer cleanups.

Reduced latency due to variable-sized FEC slices.

Improved documentation and error diagnostics.

The build of para_server is now optional, allowing the build
to succeed in case libosl is not installed.

0.4.4 (2010-08-06) “persistent regularity”

Support for yet another audio format, para_write improvements and
bug fixes.

Support for the speex codec.

Support for sample formats other than 16 bit little endian.

error2.h is now created by a perl script which speeds up configure
considerably.

Fix a bug in the aac decoder which could lead to segfaults in
para_filter/para_audiod.

Fixes for autoconf-2.66.

0.4.3 (2010-07-05) “imaginary radiation”

Many improvements for the DCCP and the UDP transport, the new user
manual and the usual mix of bug fixes and internal improvements.

FEC support for the DCCP sender (Gerrit Renker). The new
–dccp_max_slice_size, –dccp_data_slices_per_group and
–dccp_slices_per_group options can be used to set the FEC
parameters for the DCCP transport.

DNS lookups for UDP targets (Gerrit Renker).

The new user manual replaces the README, README.afs, REQUIREMENTS
and INSTALL documents.

Fix an end-of-file detection bug in the oggdec filter.

The new nonblock API.

Both options of the oggdec filter have been removed.

New debug mode for the internal scheduler.

0.4.2 (2010-04-23) “associative expansion”

It’s been some time since the last release, but finally here is
paraslash-0.4.2. The bulk of the changes comes from the new buffer
tree API, but there are changes all over the tree. Mainly performance
and usability improvements, but also quite some bug fixes.

The new buffer tree API.

DCCP: Support for CCID negotiation (Gerrit Renker).

UDP robustness fixes.

The –bufsize option for mp3dec is gone as it no longer makes sense
for the new buffer tree API.

Fix audible buffer underruns for wma streams.

The alsa writer no longer prints meaningless underrun durations.

audiod: Defaults work also for udp streams. If no filter is
given for an audio format that is received via upd, fecdec is
automatically added as the first filter (along with the decoder).

0.4.1 (2009-12-22) “concurrent horizon”

Support for another audio format, minor feature enhancements and lots of bug
fixes. All fixes that have been accumulated in the maint branch (in particular
those mentionened in the 0.3.6 release notes) appear in this release as well.

wma support.

new afh option: –human to activate human-readable output.

new server/audiod option: –log-timing to print timing information.

build system improvements.

source code documentation updates.

0.3.6 (2009-12-07) “cubic continuity”

Quite a few bugs have been found and fixed since 0.3.5, so here’s
another 0.3.x release. No new features.

Always check return value of malloc().

ogg vorbis/FEC: Do not write garbage after the audio file header.

exit if root privileges could not be dropped.

FEC: Fix computation of extra slices.

oss: Fix check for empty input buffer.

Avoid buffer underruns due to filter chain output buffer constraints.

server: Fix assignment of afs_pid.

Don’t panic if the afs database contains unknown audio formats.

http/dccp: Do not send the audio file header twice.

FEC: Timing improvements.

0.4.0 (2009-11-10) “simultaneous independence”

Two significant changes which require the new version number: The
improved authentication dialog and the fact that the database code
has been moved to a library, libosl. To use the new version, you have
to generate new RSA keys, see INSTALL for details. A shell script is
provided for conversion of the 0.3 database to the new 0.4 format.

stronger crypto for client authentication

the database code has been moved to a library

improved status item handling

cleanup of the build system

The “-V” option now also prints the git version

the new parser-friendly listing mode for the ls and stat commands

mandatory rc4 encryption

major audio format handler cleanups

(id3,…) tags are no longer stored as a combined string in the database

0.3.5 (2009-09-21) “symplectic separability”

Full client support for *BSD Unixes, complete re-write of the ogg
vorbis audio format handler, various improvements all over the place
and the usual mix of bugfixes. This release marks the end of the 0.3
series if no serious problems show up.

the new oss writer (supported on *BSD and Linux)

rewrite of the ogg vorbis audio format handler. It’s
recommended to replace the chunk tables of existing ogg
vorbis files in the afs database by re-adding these files
with “add -f”.

support for netmask subsets (Gerrit Renker)

the new prebuffer filter

improved signal handling

variable fec output buffer size

improved FEC timing fixes audible buffer underruns in UDP mode

–log_color actually works

new ls option: -d (print dates as seconds after the epoch)

update to gengetopt 2.22.2

support for RSA keys of size > 512 bits

new option “mixer_channel” for para_fade

0.3.4 (2009-05-07) “elliptic inheritance”

The new udp sender, forward error correction, colored logs and various
other improvements. As the udp sender does not depend on any special
libraries, it is built unconditionally.

The udp sender replaces the ortp sender. The new code uses forward
error correction to protect against packet losses. Many thanks to
Gerrit Renker for providing ipv6 support.

The default port for udp streaming now defaults to 8000, like
for the http and the dccp senders/receivers.

Loglevels are now specified as symbolic names, e.g.
“–loglevel info”.

improved ipv4 and ipv6 URI parser (Gerrit Renker).

para_server/para_audiod: Color support for log messages.

new options for mp3dec: –ignore-crc, –bufsize

new audiod option: –config-file.

gengetopt cleanups.

Improved help/man pages: The documentation of para_audiod,
para_recv, para_filter and para_write now also contains
all options of the available receivers/filters/writers. The
man page of para_fade contains a description of the different
modes of operation.

new status item/database entry: amplification. It is
used by the amp filter to pre-amplify the audio stream.

fix a close-without-open bug in para_write.

fix a bug in com_init() which was introduced in 0.3.2.

better error diagnostics for para_client.

0.3.2 (2008-04-11) “probabilistic parity”

The new para_afh executable, scheduling and documentation improvements.

new ls option: -lc (list chunk table)

new executable: para_afh, the stand-alone audio file handler tool

afs commands can send output more than SHMMAX (32MB on Linux). This
also reduces the memory usage of commands that produce large amounts
of output.

major scheduler and audiod cleanups.

more detailed and much nicer man pages.

0.3.1 (2008-02-23) “liquid interaction”

A mix of cleanups, bug fixes, improvements, and some new features. No
significant changes to the new database (osl) code, which is generally
a good sign.

Share some similar/duplicate code between the http and the
dccp sender.

Generic access control lists for paraslash senders.

dccp sender: Access control lists, connection limiting and support
for the allow,deny,on,off,help sender commands.

The default dccp port changed from 5001 to 8000 (suggested by
Gerrit Renker).

para_server starts even if not all public keys could be loaded.

Audiod performance improvements.

fix a bug in the “off” command of the http sender.

fix some fd and memory leaks.

Update to gengetopt-2.22.

0.3.0 (2008-01-12) “solar saturation”

paraslash.0.3.0 – ‘WWDBND –what would databases never do?’.

Usually one might expect lots of new features AND a big increase in size
for a major release like this.

However, paraslash-0.3.0.tar.bz2 is the smallest paraslash tarball
ever. The decrease in size is mostly due to the removal of some
graphical tools (which were only quick hacks anyway). But also the
fact that the mysql code is gone cuts down the size a bit.

Being independent of mysql comes at a cost: The fact that paraslash
now contains its own database (the object storage layer, osl) increases
the (stripped) binary size of para_server by ~50K on i386.

0.2.16 (2007-04-05) “neural discharge”

The main change in this release is the major audio format handler
cleanup which removes some similar/duplicate code and makes it easier
to implement plugins for other audio formats. Of course, the usual mix
of other improvements/changes/bugfixes also made it into the release.

simplified audio format handlers (most of the handling functions
were moved one layer up to the virtual streaming system).

para_server uses mmap to read audio files

repositioning of mp3 streams is much faster, in particular for
jumping near the end of large mp3 files.

permission flags DB_READ,DB_WRITE have been renamed to AFS_READ
and AFS_WRITE.

fix a bug in para_filter that caused decoding of aac files
to start only after a few seconds.

fix osx_writer hangs

simplified dccp code (thanks to Gerrit Renker)

the compress filter works also on big endian systems (ppc)

0.2.15 (2007-02-16) “inductive resonance”

Minor improvements, more documentation and a bunch of bug fixes.

para_server: The server.users file is only read once on server
startup rather than for each connection

mp3dec: Fix decoding of corrupt mp3 files

afs (audio file sender) is now called vss (virtual streaming
system). Consequently, the permission flags specified in
~/.paraslash/server.users have also changed: AFS_READ and AFS_WRITE
become VSS_READ and VSS_WRITE respectively.

para_audiod/para_filter: Fix a bug that caused the last chunk
of audio data not being written under certain circumstances

audiod: compute the difference of server time and local time
correctly

para_server/para_audiod: Fix some memory leaks

documentation improvements

configure.ac: fix checks for para_krell

new man pages

0.2.14 (2006-10-15) “transient singularity”

The only major enhancement of this version is the osx writer which completes
the Mac OS Port and was originally planned already for 0.2.13 but had to wait
until now for reasons beyond the scope of this changelog entry.

new output plugin for Mac Os: the osx writer

rename configure command line options from –enable-xxx-headers to
–with-xxx-headers and –enable-xxx-libs to –with-xxx-libs

configure: new command line options: –with-mad-headers,
–with-mad-libs, –with-oggvorbis-headers, and –with-oggvorbis-libs

some robustness fixes

dymamic audio format recognition for audiod

para_server: new command line option: –autoplay_delay

para_audiod: new command line option: –clock_diff_count

0.2.13 (2006-07-14) “sonic convolution”

A bunch of new features and core changes.

the new paraslash scheduler, short and sweet.

Support for m4a/mp4 files via the new aac audio format
handler/filter (requires libfaad).

each writer has its own command line parser, just like
para_recv and para_filter.

para_client and para_audioc use the error subsystem

writers are integrated in para_audiod (currently linux-only)

para_client is integrated in para_audiod

random/playlist selector: improved info strings

new audiod commands: tasks, kill

update to libortp-0.10.1

para_fade: wake time defaults to 8 hours from now

update to autoconf-2.60

0.2.12 (2006-05-12) “oriented abstraction”

Many user-visible changes in this release and lots of new
features:

the new optional dccp sender/receiver. It uses the datagram
congestion control protocol. You’ll need a fairly new kernel
for this.

paraslash works on Mac OS X (thanks to Gerd Becker)

para_play renamed to para_write

modular output plugin design (writers) for para_write

new file_writer output plugin for para_write

compress filter speed improvements

update to libortp-0.9.1

update to gengetopt-2.17rc

para_client no longer depends on libreadline (as the
code for the interactive mode was removed).

gcc-2-95 is no longer a supported compiler. It may still
work, but it gets no more testing.

the tarball no longer contains the screenshot images which
reduces its size quite a bit.

configure: new command line options: –enable-mysql-headers
and –enable-mysql-libs

0.2.11 (2006-03-11) “atomic duality”

Here it is, the first paraslash release developed with git. There
are fairly many user-visible changes in this release. As two out of
the three “database tools” of paraslash don’t use a database at all,
they are now called “audio file selectors” instead.

the cdt command (change database tool) becomes chs (change
selector)

no more colon separators: The syntax of some options of
para_audiod and para_filter have changed. Use –help for
more info (and some examples).

update to gengetopt-2.16 (thanks to Lorenzo Bettini)

switch from cvs to git (should’ve done that earlier)

the new ipc subsystem

new audio file selector: playlist

para_server: the dopey selector is now called “random”,
and is the default selector. Use the –selector option to
choose another selector at startup, or the chs command to
change the selector at runtime.

X86_64 fixes (thanks to Steffen Klassert)

para_play fixes

0.2.10 (2006-02-17) “cyclic attractor”

Huge documentation update, a scrollable window for para_gui, ortp
improvements, and of course many small fixes not mentioned here.
The diffstat below is rather misleading as most insertions are due
to the new source documentation.

autoconf cleanup

para_server also uses the new error subsystem

lots of new documentation (UTSL)

gui improvements:

keysyms for cursor keys and for next/previous page keys

scrollable output window

new internal commands: scroll up/down, page up/down

fix color of command output.

ortp: the –chunk_time and –header flags are no longer needed
for para_recv/para_audiod as this information is now encoded in
each rtp packet sent by para_server.

0.2.9 (2006-01-24) “progressive turbulence”

Internal audiod receivers/filters, the new error subsystem and
a lot of small improvements.

para_recv and para_filter are integrated into the para_audiod
binary, i.e. audiod no longer spawns a new process for
each receiver/filter. As para_recv and para_filter might be
useful as standalone programs, they still get built (linked
against the same object files that are also used for audiod).

further ortp timing improvements should reduce the CPU usage
of the ortp receiver.

improved audio grabbing. The ‘grab’ command of para_audiod
has its own set of command line options. Read the output of
“para_audioc help grab” for more info.

0.2.8 (2006-01-02) “dynamic accumulation”

The new modular filter design and the para_play-hangs bugfix.

new executable: para_filter. It combines para_mp3dec,
para_oggdec and para_compress. It also adds a further filter
type, wav, that just inserts a wave header at the desired point
of the filter chain. All ‘piping’ is done in-memory (i.e. no
read/write operations are used).

para_play: fix a stupid bug that caused it to hang under
certain circumstances.

0.2.7 (2006-12-27) “transparent invariance”

Not many user-visible changes but a fair amount of internal improvements.

The http sender buffers data if it can not be sent
out immediately (because the socket is not writable). This
should prevent para_server from shutting down the connection
too early on a loaded network.

para_play also prebuffers data if it is told to start at a
future time by the –start_time option.

The return of para_recv: It combines para_ortp_recv and
para_http_recv. Use the –receiver option to switch between
the two. para_recv builds without libortp, but contains
only the http receiver in this case.

0.2.6 (2005-10-29) “recursive compensation”

Encrypt the session if encryption is requested by the client
(default for para_client 0.2.6). This is backwards
compatible, so older clients can still connect to para_server
0.2.6. Use the new client option –plain to request an
uncrypted session (off by default, must be set to on in
order to connect to para_server 0.2.x with 0 <= x <= 5).

0.2.5 (2005-10-13) “aggressive resolution”

This release adds internal senders, i.e. no more external programs are
spawned for sending out the audio data. There are two different senders
available: The http sender and the ortp sender (former para_send which
is no longer needed).

The new sender code has a plugin-like design so it can be easily
extended should there be be any future need for supporting another
network streaming protocol. All senders are completely independent of
each other. In particular, the http and the ortp sender can operate
in parallel.

new server command: sender to control senders at runtime.
Read the output of “para_server -h” and “para_client help
sender” for more information.

para_recv renamed to para_ortp_recv

new executable: para_http_recv, a simple command line
http receiver.

major afs/mp3/ogg code simplifications due to internal
senders.

ogg timing improvements

fix several minor memory leaks (found by valgrind)

empty stream definitions work again

com_ne(): ignore errors on remove

audiod: fix segfault on server restart

0.2.4 (2005-09-21) “toxic anticipation”

Several small improvements, fixes and the new grab command.

audiod:

new command: “grab” to grab the output of the stream reader
or any filters. Read the output of “para_audioc help grab”
for more information.

fix memory leak

code cleanup

audioc: new command line option: –bufsize to specify a
buffer size different from the default size 8192.

improved error diagnostics for para_play.

new configure option: –enable-ssldir so search for openssl in
non-standard places

sdl_gui: Make it look nice again for 1024x768

server: report total size of memory allocated with sbrk by malloc,
new command line option: –announce_time

0.2.3 (2005-09-01) “hydrophilic movement”

Two new executables and major feature enhancements.

audiod filters: It is now possible to specify arbitrary many
(including none) filters for each supported audio
format. This can be used e.g. for normalizing volume,
transforming or grabbing the audio stream, or for using
visualizers. Read the output of “para_audiod -h” for the
syntax of the new –filter_cmd option.

new executable: para_play, a tiny alsa player. It
can play wave files or raw pcm (16 bit little endian)
from stdin.

new executable: para_compress, a dynamic range compressor
intended to keep audio output at a consistent volume. Derived
from AudioCompress.

audiod: New option: –stream_delay. This can be used in
a local network to syncronize the audio output of all
clients that play the same stream.

0.2.2 (2005-08-19) “tangential excitation”

Mostly internal changes in this release, but also some new commands
for the mysql database tool.

cleanup exec.c, fix para_exec bug

compile time loglevel (log messages below the given level
won’t be compiled in, which reduces the size of the
resulting binaries)

new log macros that shorten the size of the source code.

workaround a gcc-4.1 bug (?) that caused send_cred_buffer()
to send only zeros. With this workaround, para_audioc works
again.

0.2.1 (2005-08-15) “surreal experience”

Here comes paraslash-0.2.1. It contains a couple of new features and,
surprise, only minor bug fixes.

kill noisy mp3 debug message

cleanup of the build system

para_server and para_client directly use the crypto routines
of the openssl library rather than invoking the openssl command
line utitlity

server/audiod: new option –user to switch to the given user
when invoked as root. Read the output of “para_server -h” for
more information.

gui/sdl_gui: new option –stat_cmd to be used to retrieve the
status. Default: “para_audioc stat”

sdl_gui: new option –pic_cmd to be used to download the picture.
Default: “para_client pic”

audiod: 5 slots ought to be enough for everybody

audiod: new status item: Uptime, kill hup command

0.2.0 (2005-08-06) “distributed diffusion”

After several month of increased development activity, paraslash-0.2.0
has arrived. It contains many new features and is much more
self-contained than the old 0.1.x series. Enjoy!

para_server: fix hang on song change and crash on sighup.
Speed up mysql queries. The DIR_LIKE macro is gone.

new executables: para_audiod, the local audio daemon that
starts playback (uses SCM_CREDENTIALS socket magic) and
para_audioc, the corresponding client.

new executables: para_mp3dec/para_oggdec, two really teensy
decoders. para_mp3dec is based on libmad, para_oggdec requires
libvorbisfile.

ovsend/ovrecv are capable of streaming ogg as well as mp3, so
they are now called para_send and para_recv respectively.

documentation updates

para_gui is themable. For now there is the default theme that
looks as before and the simple theme: blue and easy.

gui: audio streaming is now handled by audiod. Time display shows
playback time rather than streaming time

slider: update to libzmw-0.2.0

para_krell: fix crash on server shutdown

switch from gzip to bzip2

0.1.7 (2005-04-18) “melting penetration”

The main change in this release is clearly the oggvorbis rewrite,
but there are also lots of smaller changes. If you intend to use both
the mp3 and the ogg plugin, it is recommended to use software mixing,
e.g. the dmix plugin which is provided by ALSA.

new executables: para_ovsend and para_ovrecv for sending/receiving
oggvorbis files via rtp. Requires the open rtp library. Get it at
http://www.linphone.org/ortp/

rewrite of the ogg_vorbis core code

configure detects libzmw and, if detected, includes
para_slider to the list of binaries to be built by make

server stream writers read from their associated fifo rather
than from stdin

gui: new command line option: –stream_timeout=seconds to
deactivate a slot if it is idle for that many seconds (default=`5')

diffstats

0.1.6 (2005-03-05) “asymptotic balance”

Only little user-visible changes in this release. Mainly bugfixes and
core code cleanup. This is probably the most stable version ever if you
stick to mp3…

fix several memory leaks

rename default name of mysql database from “music” to “paraslash”.
Use para_server’s –mysql_database option if you do not want to
rename your old database.

rework ogg vorbis code

make update command work on mysql servers with LOCAL_INFILE
disabled

gui: improved stream I/O (slots)

simplified audio format API

para_pob_ogg is gone

0.1.5 (2004-12-31) “opaque eternity”

Let’s slide gently into the new year.

new: para_slider (not built automatically, type “make
para_slider” to build). A toy for those who always felt that
creating stream definitions is difficult. See screenshots,
README and FEATURES for more info.

para_krell: reap children to avoid zombie-flooding in case
no server is running

si: report also server pid

server: don’t busy-loop if dbtool reports only invalid files.

gui: CTRL+C works again, fix stream_read command line option

fix pic_add, hist

fix mysql dbtool startup in case no database exists

many small fixes and cleanups

0.1.3: (2004-12-10) “vanishing inertia”

Starting from this release, the database tools are integrated in the
server binary. This decreases server startup time, reduces code size
and speeds up database commands. However, the layout of the underlying
mysql database changed only slightly and 0.1.3 should be backwards
compatible in that respect.

Visible changes:

If mysql is not detected at compile time, or fails to init
at runtime, fall back to the dopey database tool which should
always work.

para_dbtool and dbtool.conf are gone. All mysql specific
options are read from server.conf and are prefixed by ‘mysql_’.

new command: cdt (change database tool)

new command line option: dbtool (choose startup database tool)

The name of current stream is now stored in the database,
so paraslash remembers its current stream when restarted.

new command: csp (change stream and play)

para_gui also reports current database tool and server uptime

0.1.2: (2004-11-28) “spherical fluctuation”

Point release before the big dbtool changes go in.

dbtool: rename ca to cam (copy all meta data). It now also
copies numplayed and lastplayed time as well as the picture
id.